Assassin x Appreciation x Friend
by Asagi Tsuki
Summary: As an assassin, he was only taught to kill. He was never praised, and he need not praise. All he wants is someone who accepts him and appreciates him


**Assassin x Appreciation x Friend**

By: Asagi Tsuki

It's been so long since I last wrote a fic for the Hunter X Hunter fandom, and I hope it's better than the ones I wrote before. This fic is dedicated to everyone who helped me through my journey in writing. It isn't easy, I know, but thanks for being there for me when I need you guys.

Special thanks to Yomi-san who helped me realize a lot of things, and as the one who gave me the most constructive criticism. Thank you. I am able to write better fics ever since you criticized me. If you didn't, I will remain at the bottom, and never go up.

Summary: as an assassin, he was only taught to kill. He was never praised, and he need not praise. All he wants is someone who accepts him and appreciates him

Disclaimer: I don't own Hunter X Hunter

**Assassin x Appreciation x Friend**

In a family of assassins, one was taught discipline, silence, and dexterity. One who isn't legible to be an assassin is basically rejected in the family, though there were some exceptions in the families of assassins nowadays, namely the Zoldick family.

In the Zoldick family, every child is taught discipline, silence, grace and dexterity. They were to stay silent whatever happens, and be able to hide in the darkness, to induce great fear to their prey.

It was the most basic shock therapy ever, yes, they knew about it, but it was also the most effective shock therapy ever, and they had succeeded a lot of missions by doing that.

There was an exception in the family, however, considering the second child of the family that has five children. He isn't all that discipline, unlike the first child, and he isn't silent as well. He isn't nimble, and all in all, he isn't legible to become an assassin. Yet he was accepted in the family, because he invented things to help them in their missions.

The feeling of acceptance was what made him somewhat haughty, especially to the third child of the family, who was appointed to be the heir to the position of the head of the family. He was envious of the third child, that everyone in the family knew, and he wanted to make the third child forfeit his position as the heir.

The feeling of acceptance, is the only thing the third child wanted, yet he never had the chance to experience it. He was given the position as the heir, that he was, but he didn't want it.

Because of it, the second child always bullied him. The first child always dared him to be better than himself before he would admit the third child as the rightful heir to the position, and the fourth and fifth child didn't care for him at all, as if he was someone different from them. Not a human like them.

In the family, they were taught to be discipline, whatever happened. But his curiosity, and the want to feel the things he had never felt, made the third child wanted to see the outer world.

Screw the family rules, he thought to himself. He attacked his own mother, and escaped from the Zoldick residence on top of the Kukuru mountain in the Republic of Padogia when the words of the Hunter Exam reached him, and he ran blindly, hoping to escape the confinement of his own home, and to find the place where the exam was held.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

He arrived at the place where the first exam would start, and he arrived there quite early. He even got small numbers. He got ninety-nine, but he did not feel proud of it.

It was almost obligatory for assassins to move fast, and know the position of their target fast. He was even supposed to get an even smaller number, but he thought that he couldn't protest about it.

He was there to escape from the clutch of his own family, and he was going to do it.

He clutched to his dear skateboard that he used when he escaped from his home, and walked aimlessly around the dark place that looked like a tunnel.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

About half an hour before the exam started, there were almost no more contestants arriving. The contestants who had arrived there were waiting for the exam to start.

Some talked to their friends, some trained lightly, and some walked around aimlessly, just like he did.

A rather fat old man was walking around, offering canned drinks to people. New contestants took it, but those who had been entering the exam for a few times didn't.

He looked suspiciously at the can, before he smirked when the man offered it to him.

He took it, opened the seal, and drank it up to very last drop of it. He had watched how the smug look on the man's face morphed into a look of worry, and fear.

He asked for more, acting like an excited little child who was thirsty, and practically downed four or five cans of the drink, watching with smugness as the man looked at him with disbelief.

He merely smirked at the man, before he walked away, throwing the now-empty can towards him. He knew that the man put laxative in the drink, but he didn't care.

When he was at home, he was always given poison in small doses so his body would build immunity against poisons, and that laxative was nothing compared to the poisons he was forced to take in.

He then began to contemplate his reason for being there. Most people were there for noble reasons, or so he thought, but he wasn't.

He wanted to find something different. As an assassin's heir, he was taught only to kill, and nothing else. He was taught not to feel compassion towards other. He was taught not to feel pity.

He was never praised for a job well done, as well, but it was a custom of the assassins. Or so he thought. His oldest brother was never praised when he did a good job as well.

And he was sure he didn't need any praise. Praise didn't mean anything to him by that time. He only wanted to feel accepted. To feel appreciated.

Why was that fat bastard accepted while he wasn't? Why could he feel accepted while he couldn't?

He decided to stop thinking as the bell that signaled the start of the first exam had rung, and a man with funny looking moustache with tips that curled slightly stood in front of them.

He talked with almost closed mouth, and his voice sounded so muffled. But due to his years of training, he could hear clearly what he said. He asked the contestants to go after him to the place where the second exam would be held.

He looked at the guys who had prepared to run after the man, and shook his head. He merely put down his skateboard, and put his right foot on it, readying his left foot so he could go as soon as the old man goes.

It was true that he was slightly surprised when he saw the old man running in lightning speed, but it was only a slight surprise. He was also taught not to be surprised by small matters, because it was essential not to be easily surprised when they were on a mission.

And he had expected the examiner of the Hunter Exam to be special people anyway.

And soon, he was zooming after the other contestants on his skateboard, receiving several yells and curses he passed the other contestants who ran after the examiner.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Hey that's cheating!" a man with short spiky black hair and round eyeglasses exclaimed as he saw him on his skateboard, hands in his pocket, and looking like he had no care in the world.

He merely looked at the man, before he promptly ignored him. Many people had thrown several curses and accuses at him, so why should this one be different?

It was not him that was different. It was the one who accompanied him that was different.

"But Leorio, the examiner told us to go after him, not run after him!" a young boy with spiky jet black hair said as he continued running beside him, looking at him as he smiled widely. "That means he doesn't violate the rule!"

He stared at him for a while. Surprised was an understatement. He never thought he'd meet someone who would stand up for him, ever, and yet here he was, skating beside someone who stood up for him.

He stared at the floor for a while, before he got off of his skateboard, and ran beside the boy.

"Hey, you okay without your skateboard?" the boy asked as he looked at him questioningly. "I thought it'd be really cool to skate all your way there!" he added with a wide grin.

"It's okay," he merely said. "I'm getting tired of skating anyway," he lied.

"Let's run together then!" the boy asked with a wide grin towards him, and towards his two other friends. "Then we could help each other to go after the examiner!"

He stared at the boy for a while, before he finally smiled ever-so-slightly. He couldn't allow more than that, because it was forbidden in the rules of assassins.

There was a tinge, a ticklish sensation he had never felt before. It was as if the sensation tried to tell him that he had finally found what he wanted, someone who accepted him as a human, as a human like him, not a killing machine who has no heart.

It was then when he vowed to forever acknowledge the boy as his friend, and stay near him to help him when he needed him, just like he had helped him and gave him something he wanted the most.

Appreciation.

**Assassin x Appreciation x Friend**

It's a short one-shot, and it might sound confusing, but almost every 'he' there is talking about the third child, which would mean Killua.

It's more like a drabble to me, but it's long enough, so I won't call it a drabble. And it's more like a prologue of some sort, an insight on why Killua decided to stick around with Gon all the time, after the first time they met.

Anyway, hope you enjoy, and please leave your comment. Constructive criticism is always appreciated while flamers will be damned. Thank you very much.


End file.
